


Nothing but Ghosts

by tirsynni



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst, Explicit Sexual Content, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:00:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23736514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tirsynni/pseuds/tirsynni
Summary: Link had no idea what he was supposed to remember, but this made him remembersomething.
Relationships: Brigo/Link (Legend of Zelda), Link/Revali (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 123





	Nothing but Ghosts

From the moment he left the Shrine of Resurrection, the world seemed large and terrifying and beautiful to Link. The first thing he did when the heavy door opened was run to the cliff’s edge and stare out. In the far distance, a grand mountain rose with a thick cloud hovering over it. Under him, the land was a rich, lush green, blanketed by trees before transforming into what looked like a field. There were great cliffs and a strange, pointy thing that he couldn’t make out. 

It was lovely and strange and all of it completely unfamiliar to Link. It remained unfamiliar even as the woman pleaded for him to remember, It remained unfamiliar when the old man turned out to be the ghost of a king and told Link his strange tale. It remained unfamiliar even when the dead King gave Link his paraglider and Link glided down to meet the new/old land.

If the Plateau had seemed large, then the world below seemed endless. The monsters, too, were larger and more terrifying, and by the time Link escaped the endless ruins and the monsters swarming them, he was exhausted.

_ “Please, remember,” _ Princess Zelda said, and no matter how hard he tried, the world seemed wild and alien around him. Even on the Sheikah Slate, the map was dark outside of the Plateau.

His boots were worn and thin, and Link felt every rock as he walked onto the stone bridge. He tried not to think about the fate of their previous owner. To make things worse, night was falling, and Link’s clothes were as thin as his boots. He was cold and exhausted. It was a little funny to think that, according to the dead King, he had been resting for a  _ century _ , yet he still felt so tired.

_ Remember _ . Link paused on the bridge and stared at the field. What was he supposed to remember?  _ Could _ he remember? Everything before waking in that water was a strange, numb blank. No memory of voices or faces. Even his name seemed alien for days while he wandered the Plateau.

_ Link _ . He kept trying to recall other voices saying his name and sometimes he thought he did, but it was probably just a delusion.

At least the bridge was quiet. There were monsters around on the bridge but not on the bridge itself.

No, wait. Link perked up. Further down the bridge, Link saw another Hylian. The Hylian looked like he was staring at something, but Link couldn’t tell what from this angle. He was the first person Link had seen since arriving in the field.

_ Unless, of course, he was a ghost, too _ . Link shivered, miserable. How could he tell the living from the dead?

A hundred years… Did that mean all who knew him were dead? All who Link knew? Perhaps this mysterious  _ Impa _ was dead, too.

Link was so tired. No matter how hard he tried, since the King revealed himself, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was surrounded by nothing but ghosts.

The man didn’t look at Link as he approached, staring at that mysterious  _ something  _ beyond the bridge. Link squinted but didn’t see much. The field, the river, ruins in the distance, a dead Guardian…

Link shivered.  _ Hopefully _ a dead Guardian. He recalled the one on the Plateau stirring, lighting up, shining a hellish red…

“The end is here,” the man whispered, and that didn’t reassure Link at all.

Neither did the rest of the conversation. The man -- Brigo -- talked about bad omens and the towers. Link bit his tongue when Brigo talked about them popping out of the ground. The truth probably wouldn’t make him feel better. 

For all of Brigo’s dramatic words though, including about the Guardian he had been watching, his voice was friendly and his face kind. Link nodded along and smiled at what he hoped were the right moments and thought,  _ Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead. _

With a cheerful wave, Brigo left him to continue with his patrol, whatever that meant. His words made Link look around one more time, though, and when he did, he saw a camp of bokoblins on the river bank. Link jumped onto the edge of the bridge for a better look. Not many. Three, laughing around a campfire. It would be easy enough to clear them out for Brigo: just jump and glide --

"Wait a minute! Please, think about what you're doing!”

Link startled and twisted to stare at Brigo. Worry darkened the man’s kind face, and he held out a beseeching hand to Link. Bewildered, Link only blinked at him. In response, Brigo gestured for Link to come closer.

“I'm young, but you're even younger,” Brigo said, voice coaxing, which didn’t clarify a thing. “I'm trying my best out here, but I get the feeling you're going to end up trying even harder in this world. That's the feeling I get when I look at your face... But maybe I'm nuts. Now calm down and climb off that rail. And don't climb down  _ that _ way. Climb down  _ this _ way!"

Still confused, Link obeyed and jumped down. When he glanced back, the bokoblins were still laughing and flailing their hands, oblivious. 

Brigo waited, all but vibrating with tension, the hand not extended toward Link white-knuckled on his traveler’s spear. He didn’t relax until Link walked over to him. Then something seemed to rush out of him, leaving his face almost angry. “Man! Don’t ever do something like that again, got it? You almost gave me a heart attack! Seriously!”

So far, Link’s time in Hyrule Field wasn’t going well. He pointed back at the bokoblin camp. “I wanted a better look at them.”

Brigo stared suspiciously at him. “So you weren’t…” He shook his head. “Never mind. Look, it’s almost dark. I have a tent nearby. You’ll be safe with me for the night, and I could use some company.”

Link’s first instinct was to say  _ no _ , but then he reconsidered. He could use some company, too, and he was so tired he felt vaguely dizzy from it. With a nod, Link agreed.

They ate a small dinner around Brigo’s campfire, and Brigo described the area to him, including Hyrule Castle and how to find Kakariko. Link sat silently and listened to Brigo talk. It was only when Brigo started talking about treasure hunters going to Hyrule Castle -- “Don’t do that, my friend! It’s not worth your life!” -- that Link realized something about this was familiar.

The campfire crackled outside the tent, providing warmth but little light due to the tent flap. It made it hard to see Brigo’s face, leaving him just an animated voice in the dark. Link heard the restless crickets beyond the tent wall, heard the bubbling of the stream, and wondered what it was that was familiar.

Then Brigo rested his hand on Link’s knee. Link knew it had to be his hand, felt its warmth, but in the dark it was somehow shapeless, like it could be anything. Brigo whispered, “Link,” and  _ that _ was familiar, the soft voice, the pressure on his leg. Link felt dizzy.

_ Remember _ , Princess Zelda said and Link tried, but his memories stayed just out of reach.

“Tell me if I’m reading this wrong,” Brigo said quietly, “but I’m lonely and I think you’re lonely, too.”

He sounded hopeful. His hand slid up Link’s thigh. Link’s breath caught. Was this… was this something Link did? Had he ever done this before?

The familiarity of the touch and tone said yes to both, and it was the first thing which was familiar since he opened his eyes in the Shrine. Even his name hadn’t been familiar at first.

He wanted to say no. He didn’t want it. He didn’t know Brigo, didn’t know himself, but…

But it was  _ familiar _ . It felt like, for the first time, there was a memory there, just out of reach.

“Yes,” Link heard himself say and shuddered at Brigo’s soft sigh in the dark.

As soon as Brigo kissed him, Link knew he had made the wrong decision. The feel of soft lips against his was odd, unwelcome, and he wondered what else he expected. He said nothing and instead took in the practiced ease in which Brigo’s callused hands stripped them both. How many people came through here, lonely and alone, just as eager as Brigo for someone’s touch? For comfort on the dark road?

Brigo was tender and Link hated it. His hands were gentle on Link’s body when he removed Link’s clothes. He kept his mouth on Link’s, leaving his hands to explore Link’s skin, and even as Link felt himself stir, there were no more memories. There was no comfort. There was simple arousal. The feeling of familiarity was gone.

Softly, voice husky, Brigo whispered in the dark between them.  _ That _ was right, Link realized, even if his words were not. They weren’t sensual but sweet, less one lover to another but between friends. Yet if Link closed his eyes, focused on the rhythm of Brigo’s voice in the dark, the crackling campfire,  _ then  _ something clicked. He  _ knew _ that.

Link didn’t know what to do with his hands. His sense memory stopped with the other’s touches. He reached out and slid his hands over Brigo’s body and he was warm but too… too…

When Brigo reached between them to pump Link’s cock, it felt  _ good _ but it  _ didn’t _ , and Link wanted to cry.

“I don’t know you, but I know you’re amazing,” Brigo breathed, and those words were all wrong.

_ I’m amazing _ , Link’s shadow lover whispered with delight and Link remembered a flare of pleasure, something warm and soft sliding up his cock. Helplessly, Link jerked his hips, his cock grinding against Brigo’s. Brigo groaned and whispered, “Yes!”

_ Yes! _

Brigo panted against Link’s shoulder and pressed him down against the blanket, and that was right: the pressure, the heat, the feel of being surrounded. Damp puffs of breath instead of Brigo’s chapped lips. Their cocks rubbed together in the dark and if they weren’t quite right, they were close enough, and Link moved to a long forgotten rhythm.

Then Brigo shifted and a slick finger pressed against Link’s hole. “Is this okay?” he whispered.

_ Is this okay? _

“Yes,” Link sighed. The sensation was off, the digit sliding inside of him wrong, but he remembered -- thought he remembered -- something inside him before. Was that the answer then? Had he done this before?

Brigo groaned, and two fingers thrust inside him. Link automatically moved his hips and yes, yes, he had done this -- something like this -- before.

_ We don’t do it like this, but fortunately for you, I am a master problem solver. _

Helplessly, Link smiled, and that smile stayed even when Brigo pressed inside of him.

Still wrong, still off, but it was close, close enough for Link to let his faded memory take over, for Link to just close his eyes and move. It burned, and Link thought deliriously that it had been at least a century since anyone else was last inside him. 

Brigo sighed, sounding blissful, and Link ignored it to focus on the sensation of someone inside him, over him. There was something terrifying about this, of lying in the dark with a stranger, something about this telling Link to stop, to run, but the memory was too strong, his shadow lover pressing himself deep inside and them moving together.

_ I shouldn’t be doing this _ , Link thought, but he simply clutched those wrong wrong wrong shoulders and lifted his hips into each thrust.

He was frightened and didn’t understand why this was more terrifying than the monsters on the Great Plateau or even gliding down to Hyrule Field. It was sex, and even if it was strange he was pretty sure he had done it before.

“Link,” Brigo sighed.

_ Link. _

Link couldn’t remember his shadow lover’s face. His voice was a whisper in the shadows. He clung tighter to Brigo and felt Brigo push deep inside of him. The earlier burn was almost completely gone, just a sweet, hot pressure when Brigo bottomed out.

Of all things, his balls pressing against Link felt wrong.

Almost all of this felt wrong.

_ Please _ , he thought.  _ Please, please. _

Brigo reached between them and stroked Link’s cock, and Link almost wept when he came. It was hot and it was good, as was the liquid heat and Brigo’s little shudder when he came, but when Brigo sighed happily and drew away, Link felt his shadow lover fade, too.

“Oh, that was good,” Brigo said. “Thank you, Link.”

Link had no idea how to reply to that. It was just them alone in the tent again.

Before the sun had completely arisen, Link was awake, dressed, and slipping out of the tent. As a courtesy to Brigo, he killed the bokoblins before setting off for Kakariko.

Link held his shame and grief close as he traveled on. It hadn’t mattered that Brigo had been alive after all. The only one who mattered in that tent that night was just a ghost.

**Author's Note:**

> And Brigo awoke alone in the morning with pleasant memories of the nice, if strange, young man from the night before.
> 
> As always, more Zelda and fandom on my [tumblr](https://tirsynni.tumblr.com/). If you like, please comment so I know I'm not suffering Revalink alone. :)


End file.
